Outcomes Mapping
What is Outcomes Mapping?
Mapping your participating area’s outcomes to institution-wide goal set, accreditation standard sets, and outcome sets created in other participating areas demonstrates alignment with those sets. Entering these mappings in AMS makes the alignments visible to everyone with access to your participating area and allows your institution’s AMS Coordinators to run alignment reports across your entire institution.
You will also be able to filter your Assessment Cycle Summary and Operational Plan Summary reports by the sets to which your outcomes are aligned.
How to Map Outcomes
1. Log into your Taskstream-TK20 account
a. On the homepage, click on the name of the desired participating area’s workspace
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Click on the green CHECK OUT button toward the upper, right-hand side of the page
- Subsequently, a Map link will appear to the right of each outcome. Choose the corresponding Map link for your desired outcome
- Click on the CREATE NEW MAPPING button
- On the next screen, choose one of the following options from the drop-down menu and then hit the Go button:
a. Goal sets distributed to [your participating area]
i. Goal set alignment: if you would like to map your outcome to goal sets created and maintained
by your institution’s AMS Coordinator in the Organization Goals Editor. This option is commonly used to align with national/regional/specialized accreditation standards and institution-wide goals, such as institutional learning outcomes, and is sometimes used to align to General Education outcomes and Strategic Plan goals.
b. Outcome Sets in [your participating area]
i. Intra-area alignment: if you would like to map your outcome to another outcome set within your
participating area.
c. Outcome Sets in other organizational areas
i. Inter-area alignment: if you would like to map your outcome to an outcome set created and made available by another participating area. This option is commonly used to align course outcome to program outcomes, and is sometimes used to align to General Education outcomes and Strategic Plan goals.
- Please note that if you select Outcome Sets in other organizational areas, there is an additional step in which you must search your organizational hierarchy for the participating area which created the outcome set to which you want to map your outcome.
7. Now, select the radio button next to the set to which you would like to map your outcome, scroll down (if necessary), and hit the CONTINUE button at the bottom of the screen.
a. If you would like to preview the goal set before selecting it, click on the [View Set] link to the right of the set
8. Check the box(es) next to the goals/standards/outcomes/etc. to which you would like to map your outcome and hit the CONTINUE button (either at the top or bottom of the page)
9. You will be taken back to the work area, where your mapping will appear in the center of the page
10. Repeat steps 4-9 in order to add additional mappings to this or other outcomes.
11. Finally, if you need to remove a mapping, choose the Map link next to the desired outcome
a. Next, select the [Remove Mapping] link to the right of the goal/standard/inter or intra-area outcome to which you would no longer like to map your outcome
b. A pop-up dialog box will ask you to confirm the removal, and you can click OK to complete the task
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between outcomes and organization goal sets?
Outcome sets are entered by any user in a workspace for his/her assigned participating area. Organization Goal Sets are institution-wide goal/standard sets that are managed by your institution’s AMS Coordinators.
What if I don’t see the goal/outcomes set I need to map to?
If you do not see an organization goal set to which you need to align an outcome, please contact your institution’s AMS Coordinator to ensure that this has been created in their Organization Goal Editor and shared with your participating area. If you do not see an outcome set in another participating area to which you need to align an outcome, please contact the individuals in charge of that area to make sure they have shared their outcomes with your participating area.
What is a workspace?
A workspace is a centralized, transparent repository for content about outcomes assessment and continuous improvement or related processes such as program review, strategic planning, or accreditation self-study. A workspace is structured in a way that guides users to enter different types of content into specific requirements.
What is a participating area?
A participating area is any group within your institution that is responsible for entering content into a workspace. For example, if the Accounting (B.S.) group is enrolled in a workspace, it is a participating area in that workspace. Every individual whose AMS account is affiliated with a participating area may be given access to all workspaces (or a subset of workspaces) in which the participating area is enrolled.